asm that belies their considerable experi- ence (keyboardist Roddy Bottum doubles with Faith No More) and the dark subtext of dysfunction, suicide, and addiction which permeates "Seasick," their frisky début. July 27: TUSCADERO. July 29: The SCUD OUNTAIN BOYS. who play spry country rock that's nearly as cool as their name, and DAN ZANES. a wafer-thin rock-and-roller, formerly of the Del Fuegos, who writes dark, dreamy tunes in the manner of Chris Isaak. ONLY CONNECT , . # Web Sightings ASTRONO Y PICTURE OF THE DAY (http://antwrp. gsfc.nasa.gov /apod/astropix html)-If space is not, as Captains Kirk and Picard thought, the final frontier, then cyberspace may be. At NASA's A tronomy Picture of the Day, worlds collide (or, at least, interface) as "each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a pro- fessional astronomer." This is not to say that amateurs need not apply: the astro- physicists and APOD creators Robert N emir- off and Jerry Bonnell encourage their many visitors to submit photos, though generally not the kind you take while on vacation, unless you travel to other galaxies. July 4th's "Cat's Eye Nebula," for instance, was taken wIth the Hubble Space Telescope and offers the image of a dying star three thou- sand light-years away. (It suggested some- thing last seen at the Fillmore, circa 1969, high above the Jefferson Airplane.) As cool as the photos are (cybernauts voted APOD the NASA Cool Site of the Year for 1995, and the agency has plenty of jaw- dropping, eye-popping sites tö choose from), the captions are positively consciousness- expanding. In the July 4th description, for example, you learn that the phrase "planetary nebula" is misleading (they're stars, not plan- ets); hypertext links take you to additional APOD image of planetary nebulae (all photos are archived and indexed both chronologically and by subject), to helpful glo ary entries, and even to a si té devoted to "The Scale of the Universe Debate in 1996." Click around enough and you can see every photo that's been up (the site celebrated its first anni- versary in June), from "Blasting Off from the Moon"-a fare-thee-well image of Apollo 16's lunar module, shot by a robot camera that was left behind-to "The United States at Night," a composite of more than two hundred images taken by orbiting satellites. From that altitude, the cities look like stars. S.O.B..s. 204 Varick St, at W. Houston St. (243-4940)-A great grass hut with a fruit- and-bamboo motif, dedicated to calypso, reggae, and the bossa nova. July 26: BOUKAN GINEN. Dining. TRA PS. 51 W. 21st St. (727-7788)-July 24: CHEAP TRICK. This late-seventies Rockford, Illinois, quartet had the wherewithal to com- bine the punk spirit of the Ramones with the pop instinct of the Raspberries. The result was often less than the sum of Its parts, but the band lived up to its name with enviable relish: they may have been the ultimate put-on, but they were a hell of a good time. Rick Nielsen has put away the ten-neck guitar, and the band recently turned up on TV covering "Cold Turkey," John Lennon's stark ode to withdrawal, hut you can still expect the guys to break ou t an ample supply of hooks, licks, and smirks AR.T MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES NEw YORK TIMES CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION-"Centen- nial" here refers to Adolph S. Ochs's purchase, in 1896, of the then forty-five-year-old paper. Four shows are up until the fall; see listings for the Museum of Modern Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the Morgan Library, and the New York Public Library. METROPOLITAN MusEu . Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.- "Winslow Homer," a comprehensIve survey of the painter's career, comprising nearly two hundred paintings, watercolors, and drawings. Through Sept. 22 _. _ (]I "Toulouse-Lautrec." After the successes of its Rembrandt and Goya exhibitions, the museum now attempts to pull off another homegrown blockbuster with its Toulouse-Lautrec holdings. The result is highly entertaining, but it lacks the breadth and authority of ib predeces ors The Met's collec- tion consists almost entirely of Ld.utrec' graphic works on theatrical subjects, including many of the brilliantly designed posters and evocative lithographs that number among the artist's most important works. But the museum has only a handful of his paintings and drawings, and minor ones at that-a situation that cre- ates a rather lopsided view of his career. Inevitably, there is a video gallery, which presents a trèsgai clip from Jean Renoir's film "French Cancan." Through Sept. 29. . . . (]I "An- cient rt from the Shumei Family Collection." A grab bag of antiquities with no theme be- yond excellence-and that's good enough. The Shumei Family is a spiritual organization with a strong aesthetic emphasis which is building a mountaintop museum in Japan designed by I. M. Pei. The objects on loan range from exquisitely wrought gold vessels from third- millenium-B.C. Persia to remarkably fresh Ro- man garden frescoes to exuberantly painted Islamic ceramics. According to the founder of the Shumei, "Unless you make others happy, you can never be happy yourself"; this exhibi- tion should bring felicity to everyone con- nected with it. Through Sept. 1. . . . (]I "PIctur- ing Paradi e: Colonial Photography of Samoa, 1875-1925." Portraits and landscapes'in a va- riety of formats, including dlbums, postcards, stereographs, and photogravures. Through Aug. 4. . . . (]I "Art of the Deccani Sultans." Through Aug. 25. . . . NOTE: The museum's roof garden is open (weather permitting), with sculptures by Rodin, Lachaise, Lipchitz, Caro, Smith (David), and Smith (Tony) (Open Tues- days through Sundays, 9:30 to 5:15, and Friday and Saturday evenings until 8:45.) MusEu OF MODERN ART. 11 W. 53rd St.-"From Bauhaus to Pop: Masterworks Given by Philip Johnson." Through Sept. 3. . . . (]I "Picasso and Portraiture: Representation and Transforma- tion" includes a hundred and thirty paint- ings, and nearly as many works on paper, depicting lovers, wives, poets, art dealers, and children. Through Sept. 17. . . . (]I "Pictures of the Times: A Century of Prints from the New York Times." Through Oct. 1.... (]I "Think- ing Print: Books to Billboards, 1980-95," an ambitious and engaging show that covers a lot of ground in a thematically unified manner- linking the advent of new printmakers (e.g., Barbara Kruger, Félix González-Torres, Kiki Smith) with such recent trends as the re- surgence of lJolitically engaged art and of metaphors of the body. Through Sept. 10. (For the run of the Picasso how, the mu- seum's hours are Saturdays through Mon- days, 9:30 to 6; Tuesdays, 11 to 6; and Thurs- days and Fridays, noon to 8:30. Timed-entry tickets to Picasso are available in the lobby and through Ticketmaster, at 307-4545.) GUGGENHEI MusEu , Fifth Ave. at 89th St.- "Meret Oppenheim: Beyond the Teacup" The subtitle says it all. The furry teacup remains perhaps the most famous Surrealist object, but it represents only the tip of the Oppenheim iceberg. It's an early work, done in 1936' the artist continued to produce paintings and sculptures-some sublime, others, frankly, awful-until her death, in 1985. The teacup's little-known yet mag- 13 New Tools for the Holi s 01J S 1t-1. "to ., ... "'- !\ , It is difficult to browse when a banquet awaits Call for our 64-page full-color catalog. 800-3 11 -4565 Visit our Website at: http://www:levenger.com LEVENGEæ TOOLS FOR SERIOUS READERS 420 Commerce Drive Delray Beach FL 33445 AD0728B2 I